Today is the official start of CES here in Las Vegas, but
Apple is grabbing some headlines of its own with the official launch of the Mac
App Store. Much like the iOS App Store for the iPhone, iPod touch, and
iPad, the Mac App Store allows users a single, unified place to go for OS X
applications.

As usual, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was on hand to boast about
his company's latest efforts in software distribution. “We think users are
going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps,”
said Jobs in a press release.

Like the iOS App Store, OS X applications will be placed in
categories (Games, Graphics and Design, Education, Productivity, etc.).
Developers must also adhere to Apple's "one step" process for
installing apps on a user's machine, and follow its strict app submission
guidelines.

“We’re delighted to bring our professional-grade paint and
drawing app, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, to the Mac App Store on its first day of
launch,” said Carl Bass, Autodesk’s CEO. “We’ve seen tremendous success on the
Mac, iPhone and iPad with multiple apps. We’re excited to offer SketchBook Pro
on the Mac App Store so artists can easily create everything from quick
sketches to high-quality artwork right on their Macs.”

Individual iLife '11 applications like iPhoto, iMovie, and
GarageBand will be available for $14.99 each. Apple's Aperture 3 software will
be available for $79.99.

The Mac App Store is apart of Mac OS X 10.6.6 and can be
downloaded via Software Update.

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quote: Back then, prior to the original iMac, most Macs looked like PCs (i.e. ugly) and although the old Mac OS was superior to Windows the gap for the average user was not huge and the Mac OS was old, buggy and unstable (Windows was worse on all counts but both OS's were in clearly in the same ball park).

I'd have to disagree there. We've had Macs in this house since we moved here in 1989. I can't say much about this pre-Windows 95 since that was the first Windows OS I used, but it was much better than the Mac OS at that time. I was only about 9 years old when I used Windows 95 and it was much easier to actually change and configure the settings that needed to be change. On Mac OS, whatever version we had at the time, it was either hard or impossible for most things that I was looking to change. This still seems to be the case to me, and Windows 7 seems to make it more difficult as well since many options have changed and/or gotten moved to different locations. The latter part of that just sucks since I'm use to the old locations.

You're right about Macs legally being the most compatible PC on the planet, but remember the word legally quite well. It's no real technical feat that stops non-Mac users.

IDK why you seem to think Macs are more secure. It's been proven over and over again that they aren't. They simply aren't targeted. If you want to say Macs are safer.... go ahead. That would be a true statement. Saying they are more secure simply isn't true though.

Windows 7... and even XP, if you know what you're doing, are just as stable as Mac OSX. Only time I've had issues is when my hardware messes up. Software will never been able to do anything about that though.

The stuff I didn't comment on what you said is basically true. The integrated stuff always works against Microsoft since they get slammed on basically anything they integrate. IDK about an app store on Windows either but we'll see. IDK why they'd bother since I can go just about anywhere and download stuff. It would help weed out a lot of the spyware/adware/crapware/malware programs out there though. I can do that myself just by looking at it but it's obvious most can't.